According to Forbes Magazine, Nielsen recently worked with E-Poll Market Research to conduct a survey with the goal being to find out which NFL players the fans like and don\’t like. Players’ appeal numbers were reportedly scored based on the percentage of those whose response was to “like” the player or “like him a lot.”

Polamalu finished number one overall with a 63% appeal rating and just ahead of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who finished with a 63% appeal rating.

Polamalu, like Brees, stays far away from controversy, is very soft spoken, and is very recognizable. Those traits always resonate with fans. Oh, both are pretty good at football too.

You could probably show a picture of both players to quite a few people that do not follow the game closely, or at all for that matter, and they likely would be able to identify at least one of the two by name. That\’s how brand-able each have become over the years.

Polamalu has been the spokesman for Head and Shoulders for some time now and it is hard not to catch him in a commercial at least twice a week.

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Maybe the other teams’ fans are smarter than I thought. Troy is an easy “like” but maybe fans have realized that all but 2 of JH hits (Vince young and drew brees) were completely bad-luck on their look of “dirtiness” plus he called out goodell…that probably earned him some love…:-)

Matt Lipner

I find it funny that Leinart is the only player on the “most-disliked” list for being a terrible player rather than having any unlikable traits.

Fu-Schnickens

I “like” it when Troy plays football, and I “dislike” it when he’s on the sidelines for more of the year than he is playing….I “dislike” when he’s in a whole mess of TV commercials while he stands on the sideline injured while the defensive secondary gets torched. Just sayin….

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